August 2020 | Field News & Resources

Featuring MIE

• MIE’s Monique Aiken co-host’s Impact Alpha’s August 14 episode of the Impact Briefing podcast, featuring an overview of impact investing news, a conversation with Maurice Jones of Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and more. Monique will be hosting the Impact Briefing podcast every other Friday — look out for future episodes.
• Impact Alpha's Agents Of Impact Call No. 21: Election Impact featured an honest conversation co-moderated by MIE's Monique Aiken with Anthony Bugg-Levine of Nonprofit Finance Fund, Liesel Pritzker of Blue Haven Initiative, and Trevor Neilson of i(x) investments on the role of impact investors in the upcoming election.

COVID-19

• The GIIN’s Response, Recovery, and Resilience Coalition’s (R3 Coalition) latest issue brief on impact investing and COVID-19 focuses on investor support of enterprises during this time of crisis.
• Debt issuance for projects aimed at helping society surged in the first half of the year as governments, supranational entities, and companies boosted borrowing to get through the pandemic, Bloomberg reports.
• A coalition of private and philanthropic partners committed $81.8 million to help California provide resources and services for individuals needing to isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19.
• Black-owned businesses have been hit harder than their white-owned counterparts during the coronavirus pandemic, a New York Fed report found.
• The Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County (Indiana) has created a new funding initiative to address child-care costs and the need for virtual learning resources, WBIB reports.

Racial Justice

• Asset management platform OpenInvest added 13 S&P 500 companies to its Racial Justice Cause index, and cut seven others that have failed to meet its criteria, according to Fortune.
• Bhakti Mirchandani of Trinity Church Wall Street offers investors interested in racial justice a range of options for advancing racial equity, via Forbes.  
• Susanna Hegner of the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation shares how the organization is investing its endowment with a focus on racial justice, via ImpactAlpha.
• The David and Lucile Packard Foundation has announced a five-year, $100 million commitment in support of efforts to advance racial justice and equity. 
• Community Foundation of Louisville (Kentucky) will dedicate its entire CFL Impact Capital fund to equitable economic development in 2020 – investing in affordable housing, Black-owned and other underserved small businesses and entrepreneurs, and community facilities in underinvested neighborhoods. 

• The Reimagining the Civic Commons initiative’s emphasis on outcomes and a portfolio approach to thinking about spaces shifted how stakeholders lead, govern, manage and approach civic assets, a new Urban Institute report finds. The initiative is supported by the Kresge Foundation, the JPB Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and William Penn Foundation.
• Katherine Kroll of Brown Advisory shares insight on the firm’s strategy for evaluating social issues in concert with environmental and governance issues, via Financial Advisor.
• The Energize Colorado Gap Fund offers the state’s sole proprietors, businesses, and nonprofits with fewer than 25 full-time employees grants of up to $15,000 and loans of up to $20,000. Priority will be given to rural businesses and those owned by women, veterans and/or BIPOC, Ark Valley Voice reports.
• Freedom for Immigrants and Mission Driven Finance have teamed up to launch the Freedom100 Fund, which aims to fund the release of immigrants detained because they cannot pay an immigration bond, via Forbes.  
• Jed Emerson of ImpactAssets offers four strategies for impact investing with confidence, via RealLeaders.